Clean Water

One of my Facebook friends shared this link with me:

Thanks Ronda!
It reminded me of my days in the Peace Corps in the Philippines. We had water off of our roof for 2 years in Davao. Every time it rained the gutters would funnel rainwater into the two tanks we had. One tank was behind the house and connected to the tap in the bathroom as well as one behind the house that Patring used for doing the laundry (by hand of course). We had a flush toilet but the water wasn't hooked up to it. We would fill up the bucket and pour it into the tank or directly into the stool to flush the toilet. (A modern flush toilet is just a water-seal with a tank.) During one dry season we had to go to our neighbors to pump water by hand. In Bohol, we had city water but the pressure wasn't any good except during the night so we had to fill up a tank in the middle of the night.

I had dysentery during my time there, probably due to water at places other than our home where we had to boil everything we drank. You had to remember that ice is made with whatever water is at hand.

The water supply in the cities of the Philippines, especially where we lived has improved over the years, but many communities there still don't have reliable, clean water.

Here in Colorado, water is one of our most important assets - too much growth and not enough water will be the problem in the future. The water rights issues between the front range and the western slope often end up in court. Did you know that California has the right for some of the water that flows out of our snow melt into the Colorado River system? If we pollute the Platte river here in the metro area, what does that do to the communities down river? It all reminds me of one of my favorite singers, Tom Lehrer from 1965 and his song "Pollution":

Facebooking friends from the Philippines

One of my first friends when I got on Facebook was one of my "little sisters" from our time in Toril. I didn't see Nening when we visited Davao in 2003 because her husband was working in Saudi Arabia, but we did talk to her on the phone. Her sister Joyce has just joined up and I discovered that one of their nephews? has formed a group called the Agton Family. So I joined it - after all Nang Tita (our "Mama") calls us her "American son and daughter". 

I also have a good friend in New Mexico on Facebook who was a PCV with us in our other assignment in Bohol. We reconnected with her when she was acting in a play our friend Chuck was directing up in Cheyenne. Over the years we have seen Linda from time to time including our visit to the Balloon fiesta in Albuquerque and when she comes to Denver for a dental conference.
Looking forward to finding more old friends!

Our first trip home 1972

I never had to come home for medical care but I did experience a number of treatments for amoeba and was once hospitalized in Cebu for same. That one turned out to be lucky since David came down with Dengue fever on the first day I was there and ended up being put in the room next door for over a week! We did emergency leave about a month later to see his father who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. My worst culture shock was on that trip, August 1972:
      First: finding out that he was dying and ending up leaving with only a day's notice (it was decided to go home when he was still alive on a conference call from the PC office in Cebu, Manila, D.C. and Mom in Minnesota at the hospital)
     Second: leaving Tagbilaran on a DC3 and connecting with a Filipinas Orient Airways (now defunct) flight to Manila from Cebu, it was a dinner flight; there were no tray tables, just drink holders; the dinner was a hot dog and a glass of pineapple juice.
     Third: the flight back to the states on PAL (Philippine Air Lines) because NW (Northwest Orient Airways) was on strike; having SanMiguel (beer), pancit (noodles), chicken adobo (garlic chicken), and rice for the meal on the plane; landing in Hawaii to go thru customs at 2am, then landing in San Francisco.
  David, "Look at all the white people!"
  Arlene, "and all the black people!"
  D, "none of the girls are wearing bras!!!"
  A, "and all the tall people!"
Then walking along the concourse came a group of very tall black men in high heels and tall hats, I concluded that they were either a basketball team or a group of pimps. After overnighting in a motel near the airport we went back to catch our next flight. In the waiting area I saw a family(??) of people who looked like they had stepped off the pages of a 1950's "Archie" comic book. We boarded our flight to Denver on "Western Airlines, the only way to fly!" [do you remember their commercials with the bird on the tail drinking champagne?]  Once we were airborne the stewardess asked us if we wanted a Bloody Mary or a Screwdriver before breakfast! which consisted of real eggs etc. and champagne over the Rockies!!
     Fourth: Jeanne, David's sister met us a the plane in Denver with her ex-husband. (We had only found out a few months earlier about her divorce.) Then we got on the Western Airlines puddle jumper to Sheridan.
   Take-off Denver; champagne;
                   land Cheyenne take-off; champagne;
                   land Casper take-off; champagne;
                   land in Sheridan where we staggered off the plane to be met by David's dad, Harry. At that point, weighing in at 119 lbs. after the dengue, suffering from jet-lag and Western Airlines' champagne flights, David looked worse than his dad!
     Fifth: my next shock came when I went into a store to buy my favorite Peppermint Lifesavers (I had been addicted to them in college). The price had gone from 5 cents to 25 cents in the two years we had been gone!
     Sixth: We spent Labor-Day weekend up in the mountains with Jeannie, her ex, David's mom and dad and his aunt Leia. Another evening we went to a local bar with David's friend and someone played "Knock Three Times on the Ceiling if You Want Me" on the jukebox. It had been much overplayed on every cariendaria juke box in Davao and Bohol the previous year.
     Seventh: I flew by myself to Minnesota to see my new-born niece. Birth and Death was a very strange concept. It was great seeing my mother, sister, brother-in-law and other niece.
     Eighth: Then Harry flew back with us to Seattle to see his other sister for the last time.
     Ninth: just one week after our return we were in Cebu with a new Bohol PCV when we were stranded for several days with the beginning of Marcos' martial law
when he over-threw his own government. All-in-all, the whole incident was bizarre. I didn't have as much culture shock when we got to the RP or even when we went home two years later, after the end of our extension of 1 1/2 years and our trip around the rest of the world which took most of 1974.
     We traveled overland across Asia and into Europe, gradually returning to the industrialized West. After being there, where even tiny pieces of broken glass were sold for a few centavos to be sent back to the factory to be made into new glass, and math homework papers may end up being wrapped around the evening's fish for dinner, I saw lots of waste here and find it hard to not recycle or reuse things.
     Sometimes it seems that the 3 1/2 years spent in the Philippines was not part of this life but a dream. Then we went "home" to Davao and discovered our "family" and friends there and it seemed impossible that 29 years had passed since we were there the last time.

I am a PCVP and RPCV

I am so proud. I am now no longer a PCTP (Peace Corps Trainee Parent) I am a PCVP (Peace Corps Volunteer Parent)! I am also an RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer). Daughter Becca has started her PCV experience in Peskopi, Albania. She was sworn in June at a ceremony in Elbasan.
Her Dad and I were volunteers BK (before Kids) back when Peace Corps was still in it's first decade in the lovely country of the Philippines.
Becca is truly a 21st century volunteer.
We had a small portable typewriter and used carbon paper to send letters to our families back in the states. She took her laptop computer with her and is connected by dial-up to the internet. We get email letters from her and are able to read her blog. This morning I saw her latest update just minutes after she posted it.
We had to take a jeepney into town (half-hour ride) in Davao to make an international phone call from the phone company office (or the phone booth at the Apo View Hotel) and we really needed to make an appointment to do it. To make a call from our second site in Bohol, we had to take a 5 hour boat ride to Cebu City to make that call. Becca was given a cell phone by Peace Corps for security purposes. She can call us (an vice-versa) from that (of course international rates apply) I can send her a text message for only 15cents! I just got off the phone with her calling from her computer using Skype. That only costs her 2cents/minute to call our phone and will be free computer to computer when we get our Skype account!
I sent my film home to process and didn't even see some of my slides for 2 years. Now she has a cute little digital camera that she can upload photos from directly to her blog and her online photo album so we can see them almost immediately. Her camera even takes short video clips!

Getting Published

I was honored to be asked to write about being a Peace Corps Volunteer for a book written by my friends Nora and Nestor Mercaco and Alok Sarwal. The book, "Voices from Colorado - Perspectives of Asian Pacific Americans" has the stories of many Asian Americans here. There were four RPCV's who served in the Philippines who were included in the book. My story "My Life in the Peace Corps - a Summary" was condensed for the book.
The release party was like year-book day at high school. People whose stories were in the book were collecting autographs from the others who were there.

Starting our jobs - Nov. 22, 1970

November 22, 1970
Toril, Davao City, Philippines

Dear Folks,
We got a letter yesterday from you dated Oct. 20. the stamp in manila says it was received there Nov. 4. So it took 2 weeks to get to us from Peace Corps, Manila. It may have been in Davao at this other volunteer’s apt. for as much as a week though. We haven’t received any mail here yet through the post office. hopefully it will be faster than the Peace Corps Pouch system.l We got our ballots in yesterday’s batch too. We already know who won in Wyoming & mostly we would've voted that way. Part of the problem is that pouches go out from Manila to Regional offices only once or twice a week. Then from the regional office once a week - then here in Davao they are delivered to Sonya’s and we have to pick them up. And we didn’t even know where she lives until yesterday. She didn’t let us know that things were there. Our communication seems to be very poor here in Davao. We finally got part of our books - David’s package of 15 lbs. arrived but mine didn’t yet.
My job is in question for me - my principal has been transferred into another school & as far as I could tell there wasn’t even a job description for me with her. In other words - she requested volunteers but I don’t think she knew what she wanted them for. And now with a new man ---. There’s work to do - but I’m mad at Peace Corps - Sonya said that they told Manila not to send new Peace Corps to Davao City - there are six of us new. I think we’re all in marginal jobs - because not enough of us in our group dropped out from training. Only two of us have left from country as far as I know. Steve Wolf - the tall blond Cebuano from W. Virginia and Roy Schuab - one of the Tagalogs.
There was another typhoon in Luzon this week - one of the worst to hit Manila. New record for wind speed - 220 km/hr. the old record was 190 km/hr in the 1890’s. the Pope is coming this week. We get Friday off because he’ll be in manila. Thursday is Thanksgiving there - no holiday here but we’re having dinner Friday with some of the other volunteers nearby. Do you remember Judy Regan and Linda Mako - Tagalogs. Judy sang “Dahil Sayo” at the barrio fiesta. they were assigned in Davao. Also new in Davao is the Drinnen family. Dave & Helen have two children - 3 yrs & 1 yr. He is in math & she is in family planning. The girls have an apartment with a British volunteer, Maggie. There is another British volunteer in Davao and near here at Mt. Apo Science Foundation are two Americans in Volunteers in Asia, One British & two Japanese volunteers. They came down to a party last week.
Actually its not bad at all here - in Davao is a grocery store where we can buy Pillsbury Pancake Mix, Quaker Oatmeal, Jolly Time popcorn, Cream of Wheat. Patring buys and cooks vegetables and meat - cow & pork. For lunch & dinner we eat rice. For breakfast we usually have toast - David coffee & me cocoa. the only thing I really miss is milk - fresh milk. I mix evaporated & cocoa & sugar & pour in hot water. Not bad. We bought Raid & every week we kill several large cockroaches. We killed two last night. We have been adopted by a kitten but Patring says she sees a mouse under the stairs sometimes. We also have living with us more than a dozen Tikis, house lizards. They live on the ceiling eating bugs. Their feet have suction cups on the toes. The neighbors have chickens which roam through our yard - The rooster starts to crow - 4:30 - 5:00 - it’s usually cool then & we put the blankets on & go back to sleep. We usually get up around 6:00 - my school starts 6:45 but my 1st class isn’t till 7:30. David’s is at 7:50. Patring starts working at 5:30. Other neighbors keep goats & pigs - there is usually several tied up in the path. There are several dogs who hang around here too. Then there are the children. We are probably the only childless couple around this neighborhood & there are quite a few on the way, More later.
Love, Arlene & Dave

P.S. The name of the place for the material is Recreational Equipment Company, Seattle, Washington - Mrs. Lipman has our catalog in our room for the address - or phone book? They didn’t weigh our bags at Kennedy! A

Our House in Toril Nov. 9, 1970

November 9, 1970
Toril, Davao City, Philippines
letter 2

Dear Folks,
We’re wondering how long it takes mail to get to you from Toril. Our jobs officially start Thursday - we’ve had a vacation before we’ve even started. I decided to keep a copy of most letters I write - to know what I’ve told each person. The last letter I wrote you - I copied mostly for the Lipmans, Delena & Jeanne - I used carbon for the girls - I’m just making one copy of this one - for me. Then if you don’t get a letter. I’ll know what you missed too.
We’ve been lazy - last Tuesday our helper arrived. She is a 16 year old farm girl - the cousin of the helper next door. Patring is going to spoil us. She markets, washes clothes & dishes, irons and cleans the house - she also cooks. Our house is a bungalow - which except for the windows - could be found in almost any suburb in the states. We have 2 small bedrooms, a living room & kitchen. There is no partition between the living room & kitchen but the stairs from the bedrooms separates them. The living room has a “sala” set consisting of 4 chairs & couch which is 3 chairs together, an a coffee table. The set is wooden. The owners left it and a dining table - 6 chairs & a wooden table with blue formica top. The kitchen has a sink-counter space & a cubby-hole for our stove which has 2 burners & a small broiler under one burner. We bought it with 2 full tanks of gas for P300 ( about $50) The kitchen will have running water as soon as the tank is put in. There are shelves & cabinets in the kitchen.
We bought a large ice chest (styrofoam) & we buy ice for P1 every day and a half. We might buy a refrig. for P700 - it would be almost new - repossessed. The new ones cost no less that P1700 for the smallest (4 cu. ft.)
The bedrooms: Ours now has a brand new double bed - we had built out of rattan & bamboo - much better than wood without mattress that we were using before it was finished. We use mats on it with sheets I had made. The owner also left an aparidor (wardrobe) and a single bed. There is a closet rod too. the aparidor has a mirror on the door & inside a place for some hanging clothes - & some shelves & 1 drawer that locks - The whole thing locks. The other bedroom only has the single bed, some boxes, & our ironing board. I bought a G.E. dry iron for P70 - 220 V. The rate this week is $1 = P6.75 - The only problem in that room is no electrical outlet. We have lights: 1 flor. tube each in liv. rm., kit & our bedroom. In the hall, bath & other bedroom there is 1 bulb each. We also have a porch with a flor.. tube & another light outside. there is an outlet on the porch, in the living room, kit & one in the bedroom. We can’t change any of the bulbs though because the ceiling is very high. The bathroom has a toilet, a faucet & a shower & barely enough room to turn in. [drawing] shower very small. The toilet flushes if you put one full bucket of water into the tank. The shower only works if it has just rained because the water is in a large rain tank outside. - More in next letter.
Love Arlene & Dave